Machinery for inspecting and maintaining track installations must be transportable because it should be employed on defined sections of track as per commissions and/or authorizations at many different locations of a rail network having many branches—and possibly even in locations around the world—at short notice and therefore without any appreciable independent driving of the measuring and processing machinery itself.
In order to make the inspection and maintenance machinery transportable, either specialized track-supported special-purpose vehicles can be used which embody a combination of machines and which move under their own power, or customized carrier vehicles can be used which make possible a loading and transporting process of the inspection and maintenance machinery.
A disadvantage of systems of the kind mentioned above consists in a higher technological cost for adapting the machinery in technical respects relating to operation and work to the diverse urban rail networks, e.g., of railroads, streetcar lines or subways, and track networks which differ from country to country in case the machinery is used worldwide. Due the size of the machinery, the use of special-purpose vehicles or customized carrier vehicles is only economical if the sites where it is to be used can be reached within a reasonable delay and steps for adapting to the track width and for depositing the machinery on various track installations can be realized in a simple manner. In addition, for worldwide use there is no available standardized solution for transportation such as, for example, containers, which would minimize logistical efforts as far as possible or afford adequate protection against environmental influences if transported by sea, for example.
Therefore, there is a need for configuring inspection and maintenance machinery for track installations in the form of smaller, flexibly adaptable, modular individual units so that this inspection and maintenance machinery can be transported more easily from one place of use to the next and so that recourse may also be had to the usual methods of transport such as by truck or standardized railroad car.
One possibility for bringing track-supported inspection and maintenance machinery directly to a place of use is to transfer it to railroad cars.
A device for carrying out construction work in an area of railroad track is known in the prior art from DE 10 2004 026 916 A1. Here, the transporting of construction materials needed for the construction work is carried out by means of rail-supported work machines on a plurality of flatbed bogie cars coupled together to form a train. A contiguous section of track is mounted over the loading surfaces of the cars so that the rail-supported work machines on the cars can also move construction materials along the length of the train. The construction materials are loaded and offloaded via the front sides of the first and/or last flatcar by means of work machines which are parked either on the cars or on the track installation over which the cars travel. However, loading and offloading of the work machines is neither provided nor described.
Loading systems particularly conforming to global standards are known for transporting smaller individual units. These loading systems can be handled with the available infrastructure without additional effort and ensure a simple and immediate transfer of inspection and maintenance machinery to the place of use.
Transport units based on elements of standardized ISO containers allow an especially simple and flexible handling of general cargo that must be transported. German Utility Model DE 92 14 306 U1 discloses a transportable loading platform with a footprint conforming to the ISO containers having a loading surface which is planar and which can therefore be used in a versatile manner. Container corners are arranged at the four corners of the loading surface. Four vertically upright posts of identical length are fastened to the container corners of the loading surface, longitudinal beams being provided therebetween at the long sides of the loading surface for reinforcement. The upper ends of the posts likewise have container corners so that a plurality of loading platforms can be stacked one above the other. The container corners and the dimensions allow handling and transporting of the loading platform by any means that are also used for ISO containers. The two short sides of the platform have a flap which is hinged to the loading surface and which can be moved from a vertical to a horizontal position. In the vertical (folded up) position, the flap closes the front openings of the loading platform; in the horizontal (folded out) position, the flap can be used as an extended loading surface which is suspended at the posts at the two lateral ends of the flap by chains of appropriate length. The lengths of the flaps are selected such that a gap existing between two railroad cars can be bridged by the flaps of two successive loading platforms so as to form a usable loading bridge. When the loading platform is deposited on level ground, the flap can also be used as a drive-up ramp by folding it down to the ground. However, the transportable loading platform according to DE 92 14 306 U1 is not suitable for loading and offloading or for protected transportation of inspection and maintenance machinery. It is not possible to overcome the difference in height between the loading platform and a track so as to allow rail-supported conveyances to be deposited directly, and there is no protection against environmental influences.